Over the years, a relatively large number of bird feeder devices have been proposed and produced, as indicated by the many patents that have been applied for and issued. A random sampling can be seen by reference to the following U. S. Patents, spanning the years 2009-2017:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,976:BIRD FEEDER POST AND DEVICE TOINHIBIT SQUIRRELSU.S. Pat. No. 7,740,216:SUSPENSION SYSTEM FOR A BIRDFEEDERU.S. Pat. No. 7,992,520:SQUIRREL-PROOF BIRD FEEDER ANDFEED LEVEL CONTROL DEVICEU.S. Pat. No. 8,230,809: ADJUSTABLE SQUIRREL PROOF BIRDFEEDERU.S. Pat. No. 8,342,127:SQUIRREL RESISTANT HOPPER TYPEBIRD FEEDERU.S. Pat. No. 8,978,586:WILD BIRD FEED DISPENSER WITHSQUIRREL-RESISTANT MECHANISMU.S. Pat. No. 9,179,649: WILD BIRD FEED DISPENSER WITHSQUIRREL-RESISTANT MECHANISMU.S. Pat. No. 9,526,232:SQUIRREL PROOF SUSPENDED BIRDFEEDERU.S. Pat. No. 9,314,004:BIRD AND ANIMAL FEEDERARRANGEMENT AND ARTICLE HANGING METHOD
These disclosures are indicative of the problem faced by the dedicated bird-watcher, namely keeping the feed in place while trying to discourage interference from squirrels, foxes, bears, or other ground animals.
More to the point, with the advent of zone-approved, large scale housing and residential development adopted by many towns in the United States, there has been a corresponding reduction in the amount of wooded acreage and open space that formerly accommodated the animal population noted above. Their casual movements into neighborhood back yards is now becoming more commonplace, especially in the New York and New England areas.
A number of commercially available feed arrangements are offered for sale, from multiple suppliers and manufacturers of suet cake. Particularly, the following feed accessories can be found on the internet as of the date of filing of the present application.
One current listing is called “Mealworm feeder with Guard”, manufactured by Drs. Foster and Smith. Still others are “Woodlink Coppertop” by BestNest.com; “Pine Tree 1451 Wire Feeder” sold at Amazon.com; “Double Suet Basket”, by Wildbeaks.com; and “Nature's Way 6qt. Cedar” from Jet.com.
Consumers who purchase the feed that is sold in metal wire retaining cages are experiencing problems with bears who merely seize the whole cage and its contents and drag it off to the woods. The property owner then is faced with complete replacement of the cage and its contents. Obviously the bear has no concern about wrecking the cage, and when he is finished, he leaves a mangled cage with the suet cake oozing out through the cage openings, this being disposed somewhere in the woods adjacent to the owner's back yard.
Moreover, the owner often does not know whether to replace just the suet cake, or a new cage containing a new cake. Due to the nature of suet cake, it is unpleasant to attempt to salvage just a residual portion, because of its unpleasant, greasy consistency.